Awks! These are the 20 worst unis in the UK, based on the Guardian University Guide 2026

The Guardian University Guide 2026 has landed, so here’s a look at which unis were ranked the worst in the UK. You know you want to know.

The Guardian bases its university rankings off many different factors – including how satisfied students are with their teaching, what UCAS scores the freshers had, and how many grads get jobs. You can find out more about their methodology here. The Guardian gives each uni an overall score of of 100, so they can be compared to each other. One uni managed to score less than 30 out of 100. Ouch.

The University of Bedfordshire was ranked bottom in last year’s uni guide, but it miraculously rose 19 whole places this year. Yay for them. So, the worst uni in the UK is now officially the University of the West of Scotland. It ranked last out of the 123 UK unis included in the league table. The uni has quite a high number of students for each staff member, and doesn’t spend as much on each student as other unis do.

The University of Westminster wasn’t far behind. Only 69 per cent of students got grad jobs or were in further study within 15 months of leaving the uni. This dragged Westminster down in the league table.

You can read about the best-ranked unis in the UK here, if you’d rather. The University of Oxford came first (surprise, surprise).

So, here are the 20 absolute worst unis in the UK, based on the rankings in the Guardian University Guide 2026:

20. University of Stirling – scored 43.6 out of 100

19. Glasgow Caledonian University – scored 43.5 out of 100

18. University of Winchester – scored 42.1 out of 100

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17. Canterbury Christ Church University – scored 42.0 out of 100

=14. University of Brighton – scored 41.7 out of 100

At least Brighton students have the beach?

=14. University of Wolverhampton – scored 41.7 out 0f 100

=14. Birmingham Newman University – scored 41.7 out of 100

13. Wrexham University – scored 41.4 out of 100

12. Bournemouth University – scored 41.3 out of 100

11. Birmingham City University – scored 41.1 out of 100

10. University of Worcester – scored 40.8 out of 100

9. York St John University – scored 39.7 out of 100

8. Brunel University of London – scored 39.6 out of 100

A vibey pic of the Brunel campus in Uxbridge
(Credit: Utente.wikiii)

=6. De Montfort University – scored 39.5 out of 100

=6. SOAS University of London – scored 39.5 out of 100

5. University of Greenwich – scored 38.5 out of 100

4. University of Roehampton – scored 36.3 out of 100

3. Middlesex University – scored 36.1 out of 100

2. University of Westminster – scored 34.1 out of 100

1. University of the West of Scotland – scored 28.5 out of 100

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